Having completed my first mini layout, one thing I learned was how much time is taken up with the carpentry for the base, and how low a proportion of time was spent on the fun part of making the actual model. It also struck me how much track could be 'lost' to fiddle yards, so I came up with an idea to get around this.

The idea is to make a universal base that can be reused, and once a layout is finished, can be lifted out easily, put into storage for swapping back again at a later time, and then you can get straight on with making the next model rather than start again with building another unexciting base. The fiddle yard would be made with channels to contain the track, without having to glue it down, thereby keeping it pristine and it could be lifted up and reused if necessary if the whole model was to be thrown away.

The base consists of two wooden shelf boards 1150mm long and 400mm wide, with a plywood backboard that drops into slots at the back. Expanded polystyrene sheets then form the layout, with thick cardboard grips to contain the track.

As you can see, the track then just drops into the gaps between the grips...

Track dropped in between grips

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Full loop filled with track

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Low angle, showing the height change over the loop

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View of the whole layout board

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Since this will be a home layout against a wall, the fiddle yard needs to be at the front where I can get at it. By dropping the track to a lower level, the scenery can go over the top, with a lift-off cover.

fiddle yard at the front for access

a11 fiddle1.jpg (312.22 KiB) Viewed 3577 times

Here you can see the eight storage sidings; four in each direction, two long and two short. Medium points used and flextrack. Again, all loose in the channels held in place by cardboard grips stuck to the polystyrene. All the track remains pristine, and can be lifted up and reused if required.

Reusable boards are a good idea. Yes time is spent by many in making good baseboards. Though making of the layout can take many yrs, for some even decades of creation & options for expansion etc is often built in.

I do have a couple of questions. The cardboard grippers are a good idea to prevent lateral movement of the track. But what about the vertical movement, how do you overcome this? As this whether due to thermal expansion, can cause trains to derail. Esp with n-gauge (as a modeller of) where the tolerances are much more critical.

Also the scenic area above your fiddle yard. Will this be removeable? The supports you have won't allow access if you have a permanent structure on top.

Don't get me wrong, I can see you're looking beyond the lifetime of the layout & the desire of not restarting totally from scratch.

The cardboard grips are about 3mm high so taller than the sleepers. They are also quite tight to the track and once they were painted do grip it quite well. So far I've not had any issues with misalignment, and to pull the track out does require a little force. However it isn't so tight that thermal expansion would build up. If it did, I could just reseat the track. I think the flexibility in the polystyrene should accommodate any thermal effects.

Good observation regarding the storage sidings. The scenery supports are loosely placed over the storage area and not stuck down. The scenery above them will be in sections that can easily be picked up to gain access to the storage sidings. This will be not only to put trains on the track, but to also operate the manual insulfrog points to 'park' one train before bringing out the next for running. The scenery then goes back on top.The biggest modelling challenge for this is then to try to hide all of the many gaps in the scenic sections, whilst keeping them durable and loose enough to easily pick them up.One advantage of having small lift-off sections is in removing loose scatter once applied and the glue dried: all I have to do is turn it upside down over newspaper, and collect what falls off

This all sounds quite ambitious for what is only my second ever layout, but then if anything on it goes wrong, I won't have wasted much money on track, and I can try another layout in its place straightaway.

For a layout that stays mainly in one piece then the use of expanded poly like this would be ok, but if you are planning to take it up and put it down several times or transport it around I doubt it would be strong enough unless it was fully braced around the edges and under with wood such as ply...

Ok, so with the first layout underway, here are some pictures of progress ...

Firstly laying out the cardboard base for the road

cardboard road cut and positioned

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then stick layers of polystyrene and carve to form a hill for the road to disappear into, and the embankment to raise the road to thus form a backdrop for the railway

polystyrene hill

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road tunnel

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road embankment

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Then cut the approach to the railway tunnel and the main river

the main river

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The big advantage of putting the layout on a polystyrene sheet is the ability to make scenery below track level. This should avoid it looking like it is 'stuck on a flat board' which of course most layouts are. By going below the track, not only will the river look better (I hope), but it should remove any flat look that give a lot of models away.

Next to build up the road crossing and the scenic fields above the storage sidings. These should then mean the trains can be viewed fully within the landscape, with nothing outside of the model to distract the eye

layout far left

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Then the second, smaller river. This time no bridge (would be too many bridges, and I want some embankment) so this stream will be piped under the railway.

smaller stream and railway embankment

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View of the larger river crossing

layout right

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A long view to the left of the layout

long view - layout left

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and a long view of the right of the layout

long view - layout right

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Last edited by alan_r on Sat Jul 29, 2017 8:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Then to round off the riverbed. Here I'm using a slightly watered down mix of filler, to give a smooth bottom to the channel, which when painted should look like a muddy base

filler riverbed

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Full view to the right, with the riverbed (not too great a shot with my point-and-click camera!)

layout right

a49_longright.jpg (525.51 KiB) Viewed 3444 times

Full view to the left. The road bridge should hide the track going off-board, with the scenic sky coming as low as possible. Will need some trees to finish off, and maybe a bus or lorry to really hide the gap! Hopefully, when viewed lowdown, it should work.

layout left

a50_longleft.jpg (551.39 KiB) Viewed 1605 times

Last edited by alan_r on Sat Jul 29, 2017 8:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.